The company in “The Gondoliers” photo credit William Reynolds by Deirdre Donovan Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1889 opera The Gondoliers returns with delicious verve to NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts with the redoubtable New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (NYGASP). This comic opera might not reach the exotic heights of The Mikado or…
John Turturro as Zorba & the cast of Zorba photos by Joan Marcus by Julia Polinsky Handsomely staged but with no center, this dark revival tries hard to charm Encores! at City Center started life as concert performances of neglected musical theater. Things change; the series has morphed into cobbled-together almost-revivals, casting an eye on…
Lt. Brannigan, played by David Sitler, questions gambler Benny Southstreet, played by Noah Plomgren. by Ed Lieberman Move over, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, there’s a new club in town: the Goodspeed Opera House, which is currently hosting the Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in CT! Rumor has it that the Goodspeed accepted a…
Photos By John Vecchiolla By Ed Lieberman The story of “Romeo and Juliet” has entertained theatergoers since Shakespeare first published it in the late 1590’s. In recent times, playwrights and filmmakers have adapted the story and/or placed it into contemporary contexts (i.e. “Romanoff & Juliet,” by Peter Ustinov [1968]; Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet [1996])….
Emily Young and Noah Brody in a scene from Fiasco Theater’s “Into the Woods” (Photo credit: Joan Marcus) by David Schultz When this brilliant musical first hit the boards in 1987 it seemed a fresh take on all the fairy tale bedtime stories we were told as tiny tots. A mishmash of various characters…
Clark Scott Carmichael, Jennifer Hope Wills By Edward Lieberman The story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table has inspired generations. One of its more recent iterations was Camelot, a musical crafted by Broadway legends Alan J. Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music), which ran on the Great White…
Photos by Carol Rosegg by Ethel Wynn The new show at The York Theatre Company, Texas in Paris, is “full of music but it’s not a musical,” and is “based on true events, but it’s not a documentary” as described by York’s Artistic Director Jim Morgan, in his witty-as-usual curtain speech. Texas in…
Edgar with Misses DuvalPhoto by Joan Marcus by Eugene Paul Nevermore? Nevermore again, perhaps. And again. Poe’s swath is immense. And in this instance with this production once more bracing New York, twice as long, twice as lavish, twice as odd, twice as fantastical, Nevermore, the Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan…
R: Louis Dall’Ava (far left) and William Whitefield (pulled by sailors) in H.M.S. Pinafore Photo: Noah Strone by Deirdre Donovan H.M. S. Pinafore sailed into NYU’s Skirball Center in late December under the steady hand of Albert Bergeret., the founder and artistic Director of the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (NYGASP). Those who…
Sarah Caldwell Smith in the role of Rose Maybud and Daniel Greenwood in the role of Richard Dauntless — sing “Happily coupled are we” backed by the Bridesmaids Chorus – RuddigoreAct 2 by Deirdre Donovan The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP) resurrects Ruddigore, for a rousing 40th year celebration at NYU Skirball Center. …